Twitter has revealed plans to strengthen its video content in Asia Pacific after striking more than 50 deals with publishers and broadcasters covering sports, entertainment and news. The announcement expands the premium video content available on Twitter to advertisers in Asia Pacific and builds on extensions of existing global and regional content deals. Red Chillies Entertainment, Vh1 Supersonic, Comic Con India, Network 18, Scoopwhoop, NDTV, Filmfare and CricBuzz are among the 12 Indian partners that Twitter will collaborate with to bring new content to audiences in the country and opportunities for Indian advertisers.
At the TwitterFronts event in Singapore, Twitter executives including Global Vice President of Content Partnerships, Kay Madati and Vice President of Asia Pacific Maya Hari presented the content partnerships to brand and agency partners in the region. They were joined by guest speakers including Christine Fellowes, Managing Director, NBCUniversal, Avinash Kaul, COO, Network18, Shanna Murady, CCO, FMA Indonesia, CK Lee, VP Of Sports Content, Astro Malaysia, Binda Dey, Head of Marketing, Red Chillies Entertainment, Talina Cruz, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing & Visual Content, Sony Music, and Serene Lee, Head of Sales, VICE, among others.
“Content is happening now at Twitter, and we have proven through the efficacy of the partnerships we have crafted, that content programming and distribution on Twitter is an essential part of any media company’s audience engagement and content monetization strategies,” said Kay Madati, Global VP of Content Partnerships, Twitter. “Asia Pacific is accelerating growth for Twitter. Our unique and strategic value proposition that positions Twitter as a complement, not competitor to traditional media companies, has delivered great success and we seek to drive forward with more live stream and premium video content partnerships in the region.”
“Video continues to be an important way to stay informed and engaged on Twitter, especially for the younger millennial audience in Asia Pacific,” said Maya Hari, Vice President of Asia Pacific, Twitter. “Building on the success of our premium video content launch at All That Matters last year, we are proud to expand our live stream and video highlights programming that is brand safe and will appeal to the audience and advertisers in APAC. The move strengthens Twitter’s presence and partnerships in the region, sharing with the world what’s happening right now in Asia Pacific and for global audiences to talk about it.”
Shrenik Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, White Rivers Media shares, “Gone are the days where marketers used to say, video is the next big thing. Video is obviously, the current big thing.
With each and every top social network putting in energies to increase the video consumption habits on the network, the battle is not of market share right now, but of stickiness on the features and content. More content creators generate better engagement on the network, resulting to better time spent and greater mind share.
Twitter’s move on collaborating with Indian content creators is a battle begun well, but the proof of pudding lies in the eating. It shall be interesting to see if twitter exclusive content created by the content creators is accepted by Indian audience and how it shall be amplified within & outside the platform.”
Shradha Agarwal, COO ,Grapes Digital Pvt. Ltd, commented, “Twitter was one of the first social platforms which garnered strong user participation and became a truly engaging platform. As it evolved along with other platforms, it soon became a great place to air one’s opinions, follow category leaders and even discover breaking news. More importantly, from a brand perspective, it has become a great place to launch new products, track user sentiments, engage with them directly, create trends and more. As part of campaign platforms, twitter ranks highly in a planner’s spectrum as a digital place that always triggers in high engagement. At Grapes, we have also been in-step with every innovation that Twitter has brought in. Be it the #ManforcePowerplay or #WorldOfNexaBlue campaign, we have always been at the forefront of using the platform changes and use them as brand innovations for our clients.
All of this was hunky dory, but one thing that it has always sort of lagged in, was storytelling.
Other competitive platforms like Facebook and Instagram haven’t taken long to adapt to the latest format of storytelling on social – videos. Video format as we all know will be the most consumed content format by 2020. Twitter, like all other platforms, continues its evolution towards turning a new leaf with its latest venture. By tying up with popular content creators around the world, it can be said that twitter has indeed taken a step in the right direction. The partnership is aimed at making the platform more video oriented, thus allowing it to become a stronger part in the audience’s consideration set, vis-a-vis video content. While this, we are sure, is the intended reaction from the users, whether it actually transforms into something of this sort, only time will tell.”
